SarahDeLeoMusic

Hello friends –

Thank you for taking the time to read my annual recap.  I hope the New Year is treating you well, wherever you may be.

2015 was a centennial year for three important figures in American music – Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, and Billy Strayhorn.  My children and I enjoyed an afternoon at the New York Public Library of the Performing Arts exhibit on Frank Sinatra.  I have included some pictures below.  My favorite was the touch screen virtual “jukebox.”

2015 was a great year for me to get my voice back in shape and to get back into the business of singing.  I had another wonderful experience at the Make Music NY gig sponsored by Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer.  The weather was extremely hot, but we were a diehard group of performers and audience members!!  I also had a fun opportunity to sing at a new Danny Meyer venue called Porchlight Bar.  I worked with pianist Misha Piatigorsky for the first time and we breezed our way through a set list from Hoagy Carmichael to James Brown.

I look for 2016 to bring more of the above!!  If you are in the metropolitan NYC area or know someone who lives here who is looking for music for their venue or event, please have them contact me at 646-583-1370.  I’m always pursuing new opportunities and leads.  I also promise to post more photos and videos (and maybe launch a new mobile site) in 2016.

Onward..

Sarah

March 5, 2015

Hello friends –

I hope the first few months of 2015 have been good to you.

As I sit in the library writing this, we are experiencing what hopefully will be the last snowstorm of the year. (See picture attached.) Despite what you see in the picture, the birds have been singing in the morning, so we are nearly at springtime, a very welcome time of rebirth and renewal.

As some of you may have read in my posts, as of January 2015 I consider myself officially back in the business of singing. Not one to wait until the official first day of spring to start my rebirthing and renewing, I have already been at work on several singing items. Most importantly, my voice is back in shape, and I think I sound better than ever. I recently met a fantastic guitarist to add to the already wonderful stable of musicians I have to call upon. I’ve been putting together some charts and thinking through various ideas. I finally finished my repertoire lists and am in progress on other business-related matters.

Once again, I look forward to singing on June 21st for Make Music New York (MMNY) Day at an event sponsored by Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer. Last year, we moved on up to the East Side – Carl Schurz Park – following Gale’s ascension into her now job. As always, it was a great afternoon, and now we have a beautiful view of the East River!! This year, the event falls on a Sunday. I anticipate doing a warm-up gig in May. Last year’s MMNY gig led to a private engagement on the East Side, where I was happily reunited with guitarist, Chris Bergson, with whom I had not had the opportunity to work in several years.

One primary aspect for me going forward is the development of my private party business. If you are in the tri-state NYC area and are looking (or know someone who is looking) for a mellow singer like me for an event, please contact me. My repertoire spans all of the last century, and includes a few tunes from this one, and can be customized for your event. I also have in mind a few special programs centered on certain singers and will hopefully be rolling those out over the next year or so.

2015 also marks the 10-year anniversary of my debut CD, The Nearness of You!! I have some thoughts about how to commemorate this achievement, but I’m still in the planning stages. Stay tuned later in the year for this one!!

Thank you as always for your interest in my work. It never ceases to amaze me the worldwide attention that a crazy standards/oldies-loving singer like me can generate. And unlike Taylor Swift, I really do appreciate and welcome your streaming revenue!!

Thank you. Arigato. Obrigado.

Sarah

Hello friends –

As a parent of young children, I tend to walk around in a haze of “Hmm…Wha…Oh…What time is pick-up?”, which pretty much defines my days. Amidst the blur, I attended to various singing items as they arose during 2012. Last spring there was a run on my CDs at Amazon!! Every other, and for a stretch every, week I headed over to my local post office to fulfill an Amazon order. What a pleasant surprise!! In time for the holidays, I sent them some more. Thanks to all purchasers!!

Going back to the summer, I enjoyed another fun gig at the Brandeis High School Garden, sponsored by Council Member Brewer’s office. It was almost 100 degrees at the time of our performance!! I don’t think I ever sweat so much on a gig, but as always the wonderful environment, people, and refreshments made the day. I also had a special treat of being able to hook my mic into the excellent sound system of the band following us, which made it that much easier to sing. This was my only gig of the year, so it can be kind of daunting to prepare and perform with about a year between performances. I was able to ease into the gig though, just like old times. As my colleague Marcelo Cardozo says, “A sly fox never loses his skill.”

Looking ahead, I have a lot of ambitious plans. Whether I will be able to get to them is another story. Having two children in school has not been the freewheeling experience I was expecting. Instead, I’ve spent this school year careening from one unusual, unexpected event to another. At this rate I’ll be pleased to have started getting my voice back in shape in time for the summer. I never got to my repertoire list in 2012, so that looks like an ongoing project for 2013. Regarding performance, I sang once in 2012 and twice in 2011, so I’m looking at three gigs this year for a sense of accomplishment!!

Wishing you and yours all the best for 2013. Thank you for your continuing interest and support.

All the best,
Sarah

(It looks as if “finally” will be the operative word for the upcoming 2012-13 school year, as I work to dig my way out from 24/7 Mommydom. I am aiming for timelier posting of next year’s 2012 recap!!)

A Belated New Year’s Greeting 2012

Hello friend –

I hope the New Year has been treating you well so far. Here in New York, we’ve had warm temperatures, and a little bit of snow – enough to see it floating gently through the air, but not enough to stick to the ground!! The Giants are on their way to the NFC Championships, so we’ll have something fun to root for in the upcoming future.

2011 was a surprisingly eventful year, especially for someone like myself who was not actively soliciting work!! The biggest news of the year was my agreement with the Japanese company, Ultra-Vybe, to distribute my CDs in Japan. I really appreciate the support from the Japanese business people and music fans. Once I am ready to record a new album, I hope to continue the relationship with Ultra-Vybe. Best of all, this opportunity was unsolicited. Here’s to more unsolicited opportunities!!

Also, during this past year, I had the pleasure once again of singing on Make Music New York Day at New York City Council Member Gale Brewer’s event. Beautiful weather, lovely outdoor urban oasis, wonderful audience, snacks and drinks, and a great song list – I wish every gig was as fun as this!! Then, later in the summer I returned to the intimate SoNo Caffeine in Connecticut. My thanks to John Stuart for his ongoing support and encouragement.

Listeners continue to download, stream, and buy my recordings, “The Nearness of You” and “I’m in Heaven Tonight,” whether as individual tracks or in their entirety. I appreciate these purchases, whether they result in whole dollars, pennies, or fractions of pennies in earnings for me. Not only is this income for my family (and my husband thanks you for that as well), but it also more importantly represents that people actually give a damn enough about my work to choose it (and in most cases, directly pay for it) in an age where music is ubiquitous and readily accessible. So, to one and all, thanks for giving a damn!!

Plans for 2012 include much of the same from last year. My big project for this year will be compiling a list of my repertoire. (Yes, I’ve been singing since I was nine years old, and I don’t have a list readily available of what I can do.) I hope that by December 31st of this year I will have completed this daunting project, in anticipation of being a little more active in 2013 than I have been recently.

Happy New Year 2012!!

Sincerely,
Sarah

From now through January 6th, both my CDs, “The Nearness of You” and “I’m in Heaven Tonight,” will be on sale at CDBaby. The digital versions of both CDs and the physical version of “I’m in Heaven Tonight” will be on sale for $5.

The Nearness of You

I’m in Heaven Tonight

www.sarahdeleo.com now has a video page, featuring two videos from a July 2010 performance at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York City!!

Hello friends –

Belated Happy New Year 2011!!

Every year at this time, I write about the year just past, and usually marvel at how quickly it went by.  This time though I would like to take a few minutes to revel in the past year, because it was so wonderful!!

It all began in February.  I met Allen from Songwriter’s Monthly, and he offered to do an interview of me for the publication.  We had a lovely chat, and he wrote a very nice article about me.  He is a great writer, and his piece included one of my most favorite quotes ever about my work, “She twirls the melody innocuously like a girl absentmindedly playing with her hair and the subtle shifts in line and phrasing create an arrangement that not only sounds new, but is also perfectly natural and effortless.”  How wonderfully lyrical and insightful!!  I am so appreciative that he included me in the publication.

Next, also in February, I met Antonio Narvaez Dupuy, a Chilean native living Barcelona.  Antonio has his own program on Contrabanda Radio (91.4 FM) in Barcelona, featuring whatever he music would like to play.  Not only did he give me my first spins in Spain, but he also presented the first retrospective of my discography anywhere. I am so thankful to Antonio for his support of my work and his friendship.

Then, in April I was chosen to participate in WNYC’s Battle of the Boroughs: Manhattan Throwdown, broadcast live on wnyc.org from The Greene Space.  What a fantastic opportunity!!  I still can’t believe I was chosen.  I found out about this competition on WQXR, and filled out the online entry form (with help from my husband without whom I might not have been able to complete it!!).  Then, a few months later they contacted me to ask if I’d like to participate.  I can’t even begin to describe the shock I felt once it was confirmed that I was to participate.  I am very honored to have been selected, and gratified to have been one of only two jazz vocalists in the competition, which included singer/songwriter, hip-hop, alt rock, world music, and classical acts.  I didn’t win, but I didn’t care.  I was selected, I participated, and I represented.

Over the summer, I had a nice series of gigs.  Once again, Councilmember Brewer’s office invited me to sing at their Make Music New York Day event.  It is such a joy to sing at that event and I am so grateful that the Councilmember’s office invited me to participate again for the third straight year.  Then, I subbed on a fun restaurant gig – just a quartet hanging out and playing (unfortunately not an environment singers find readily around town nowadays).  Then, I returned to my annual out-of-town tryout in Fairfield County for another invaluable gig at SoNo Caffeine.  Then, I was selected to participate in the First Annual Iridium Jazz Vocalist festival – my first “major” room appearance!!  Thanks again to Scobar Entertainment and the Iridium Jazz Club for this wonderful opportunity.  Then, I closed out the summer with another fun gig at a cool venue, the Bubble Lounge.  I sang five times over seven weeks and for this singer/primary caregiver of two young children it was both exhilarating and exhausting!!

Before the summer was out, I had another radio first – my first spins in the UK thanks to Aja Allsop at UK Jazz Radio.  I am so glad to have met Aja and to now count him among my colleagues.  Not only do I appreciate his support of my work, but his radio show has also introduced me to many European artists I was unfamiliar with previously.

Then, in December I got word from my Japanese music contact in California that Ultra-Vybe, Inc. was interested in distributing both my CDs in Japan!!  I sent out the first order in December and have already fulfilled a second order!!

All in all, not too bad a year for a woman with two children under the age of four, and in particular after the challenging economic environment in late 2008 through 2009!!

After a wonderful year like 2010, what’s next?  Well, not much actually.  As much as I love singing, I found it too exhausting to care for my two young children and work on art and business as well.  It may seem counter-intuitive given the year I just had, but once again, barring any offers I can’t refuse (like WNYC), I do not plan on doing much performing over the next few years.  That said, I do think a lot about singing – the next four recording projects I’d like to do, a performance-only project, and other singing business development – so I hope you will bear with me through these quiet years.  I’m really excited about all the projects I plan on working on once my children are a little bit older, and I hope you will be there with me for all of it!!

Wishing you a wonderful 2011!!

Sarah